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kongstad writes "In an issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education, Siva Vaidhyanathan has some interesting things to say about the concept of Copyright: 'Back in the 20th century, if someone had accused you of copyright infringement, you enjoyed that quaint and now seemingly archaic guarantee of due process. Today, due process is a lot harder to pursue, and the burden of proof increasingly is on those accused of copyright infringement.'" A very good academic look at the recent expansions of copyright law.

kongstad writes "In an issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education, Siva Vaidhyanathan has some interesting things to say about the concept of Copyright: 'Back in the 20th century, if someone had accused you of copyright infringement, you enjoyed that quaint and now seemingly archaic guarantee of due process. Today, due process is a lot harder to pursue, and the burden of proof increasingly is on those accused of copyright infringement.'" A very good academic look at the recent expansions of copyright law.

fixion writes "This article in the Chronicle of Higher Education reports that the House Judiciary Committee unanimously approved bill S.487, the Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization (TEACH) Act of 2001 yesterday. The TEACH Act updates the Copyright Act to make it easier for educators involved in online distance education to use copyrighted materials without violating fair use guidelines. The Senate passed it well over a year ago, but it has been languishing in the House Judiciary Committee eve since, held up by Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI). Since the Senate and House Committee passed identical bills, getting it through the full House and to the President to sign should happen fairly quickly now."

An anonymous reader submits: "Cartoons for fun and secrecy -- A student at the University of Dayton has apparently come up with an encryption scheme using computer generated animation. Story at the Chronicle of Higher Education."

geisler writes "The Chronicle of Higher Education has a very good article on how larger colleges are beginning to create departments to deal with the social issues related to computer problems and not depending solely on technical solutions. The University of Maryland's Project NEThics is used as a prime example."

geisler writes "The Chronicle of Higher Education has a very good article on how larger colleges are beginning to create departments to deal with the social issues related to computer problems and not depending solely on technical solutions. The University of Maryland's Project NEThics is used as a prime example."

geisler writes: "According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, a professor at Virginia Tech had her computer seized so that university police could try to track down someone who emailed her. She was denied the chance to backup before the computer was taken, and there seems to be some differences in stories between her and the authorities."

geisler writes: "According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, a professor at Virginia Tech had her computer seized so that university police could try to track down someone who emailed her. She was denied the chance to backup before the computer was taken, and there seems to be some differences in stories between her and the authorities."

Slashback brings you updates tonight on book reviews past, intentionally defective CDs, failing disk drives, and joining the HURD. Enjoy!

Spin control for some IBM drives? If you are one ofthe people who have the same results with IBM 75GXP hard drives that Sean Kelly did when he posed a recent Ask Slashdot, you may be interested in this report from legLess, who writes: "Pair Networks is swapping out every IBM 75GXP hard drive they have "[b]ased on an amazingly high failure rate." Pair is a big host: 114,000 sites all running on FreeBSD 4.1.1, including cdrom.com and Tom's Hardware. "We currently use and recommend Maxtor drives" they say. Big black eye for IBM."

GNU isn't Linux, either. Amid the stream of recent and upcoming software releases (Suse 7.3, Red Hat 7.2, Qt 3.0), it's sometimes easy for projects with smaller followings or more esoteric goals to get lost. BorrisYeltsin writes: "The Debian HURD iso images are now available from your local ftp.gnu.org mirror. There are 3 iso's available, so get downloading now!" (And read through the recent months' on the HURD Kernel Cousin too.)

Update: 10/16 14:20 GMT by T : Please note that the GNU Project maintains a list of ftp mirrors -- look for one local to you for best results all around :)

Placing warning signs along the road to consumerism brigc writes: "Good interview in the Chronicle of Higher Education with Jessica Litman about changes in the copyright arena since the publication of her book.

For those who were asleep, Litman's book 'Digital Copyright' does a good job of discussing why the copyright process got handed over to the industry and Congress has failed to protect the rights of the public."

Litman's book got a rave review from Michael a few months back; I suggest you check it out, and better yet ask you local library to put it up on display. Libraries have a strong vested interest in not ceding all control to copyright holders forever and ever amen.

It might pay to have a big fat mouth and ask for a refund on defective merchandise, too. anonicon writes: "Here's a heads up to the web site I'm running at http://www.fatchucks.com. I've started both a Corrupt CDs list for people who wish to report 'copy-protected' CDs or find out which ones they are, and an Indie Rec for people who want to recommend independent artists to the public. Thank you."

gotroot801 writes: "The Chronicle of Higher Education is reporting that eighteen British institutions plan to generate income during the coming academic year by displaying advertisements on the computer screen savers of students, professors, and staff members. Why does this remind me of that Simpsons episode where Troy McClure is teaching a Pepsi-sponsored class?"

gotroot801 writes: "The Chronicle of Higher Education is reporting that eighteen British institutions plan to generate income during the coming academic year by displaying advertisements on the computer screen savers of students, professors, and staff members. Why does this remind me of that Simpsons episode where Troy McClure is teaching a Pepsi-sponsored class?"

It's only tangentially related to the internet, but the Chronicle of Higher Education is running a story about 'free-speech zones' being set up at certain colleges. Or, if you look at it another way, 'non-free-speech zones' being set up. Assuming these 'zones' are administered in the same way as they are in New York City, the object is to make the zone as far away as possible from anywhere they could be heard, so as to minimize the impact of the protest. I found the article quite interesting as a recap of the current state of campus speech restrictions.

plastickiwi writes: "According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, U.S. House of Representatives majority leader Dick Armey is on the warpath about the Illinois Institute of Technology's nascent review-in-progress of the U.S. government's Carnivore technology. Find the article on their site. 'It's a bad idea to have people with clear political ties reviewing a system under political scrutiny,' said a spokesman for Armey. In a prepared statement Armey referred to the review as 'a whitewash.' Ouch."

plastickiwi writes: "According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, U.S. House of Representatives majority leader Dick Armey is on the warpath about the Illinois Institute of Technology's nascent review-in-progress of the U.S. government's Carnivore technology. Find the article on their site. 'It's a bad idea to have people with clear political ties reviewing a system under political scrutiny,' said a spokesman for Armey. In a prepared statement Armey referred to the review as 'a whitewash.' Ouch."

Simon Spero writes: "Metalab, the site formerly known as SunSITE, is now www.ibiblio.org . This change has been made in response to a donation by Bob Young and Mark Ewing of Redhat of $4 million; this grant will be used to apply the techniques and philosophies of the Open Source Movement to more traditional kinds of information, creating the first of a new kind of digital library. " Metalab URLs will continue to work. Here's the FAQ and some more press coverage. Really the name change is secondary (I still hadn't stopped using sunsite bookmarks) but this could be really cool.

King_B writes "Metallica is taking a stand against major universities by requesting a restriction on the use of Napster." I hear They Might Be Giants is gonna respond by going after universities that use NFS.

M100 writes: "The Chronicle of Higher Education reports in this story that a computer-privacy 'expert' has told colleges that they should ban Telnet and FTP because 'they offer easy routes for unauthorized people to gain access to personal data on campus networks.'" The story is based on Simson Garfinkle's writings ... it's mostly about other stuff, too. (Besides, who doesn't at least use ssh?)

M100 writes: "The Chronicle of Higher Education reports in this story that a computer-privacy 'expert' has told colleges that they should ban Telnet and FTP because 'they offer easy routes for unauthorized people to gain access to personal data on campus networks.'" The story is based on Simson Garfinkle's writings ... it's mostly about other stuff, too. (Besides, who doesn't at least use ssh?)

wtpooh writes: "Many librarians and archivists are concerned about the impermanence of online scientific journals. They are accustomed to saving the paper journals for decades and do not have faith that the online versions will still be accessible in the future (What happens when a publisher goes out of business and shuts down its Web site, for example)." (Read more.)

"To help solve this problem, the Stanford Library is collaborating with the National Science Foundation and Sun to create a system called LOCKSS (Lots Of Copies Keep Stuff Safe). LOCKSS is an open source, java/linux based server system which is designed to run on cheap computers at libraries and permanently cache journals to which the libraries subscribe. The LOCKSS systems talk to each other to preserve the integrity of their caches and ensure that there are always at least a minumum number of copies of each article around the world. Read about the current alpha test at the LOCKSS homepage or in this article in the Chronicle of Higher Education "

Sounds like self-interrogating distributed file systems can be useful to people unlikely to get sued by rock bands, as if that wasn't obvious.

GreyyGuy writes "Found an article from The Chronicle of Higher Education linked on Wired about an artist who made a prayer circle of computers that recite prayers to one another...." Reminiscent of an old Arthur C. Clarke short story, The Nine Billion Names of God, in which a group of Tibetan monks who believe the purpose of the universe is to name God in all possible ways - and buy a computer to speed up the process. The British techs who install the machine are skeptical, but when the program finishes its run they look up at the sky - and see the stars going out, one by one.

GreyyGuy writes "Found an article from The Chronicle of Higher Education linked on Wired about an artist who made a prayer circle of computers that recite prayers to one another...." Reminiscent of an old Arthur C. Clarke short story, The Nine Billion Names of God, in which a group of Tibetan monks who believe the purpose of the universe is to name God in all possible ways - and buy a computer to speed up the process. The British techs who install the machine are skeptical, but when the program finishes its run they look up at the sky - and see the stars going out, one by one.

PresOdent writes "Carnegie Mellon University cut off network access to 71 students who allegedly put some copyrighted mp3s on their sites on the university's computer network. The university said it discovered the copyright violations last month, when it conducted surprise inspections of student computer files at the order of the Recording Industry Association of America. Read the article from the Chronicle of Higher Education for more info."

PresOdent writes "Carnegie Mellon University cut off network access to 71 students who allegedly put some copyrighted mp3s on their sites on the university's computer network. The university said it discovered the copyright violations last month, when it conducted surprise inspections of student computer files at the order of the Recording Industry Association of America. Read the article from the Chronicle of Higher Education for more info."

I wonder if Sir Isaac Newton would have signed up for this unbeatable deal: Any professor who mentions Windows programming tools in a scholarly presentation gets a check from Microsoft for $200. Now I know academics are strapped for cash, but that badly??? Anyway perhaps there was a backlash since Microsoft has withdrawn the page making the offer... but perhaps not the offer itself.

I wonder if Sir Isaac Newton would have signed up for this unbeatable deal: Any professor who mentions Windows programming tools in a scholarly presentation gets a check from Microsoft for $200. Now I know academics are strapped for cash, but that badly??? Anyway perhaps there was a backlash since Microsoft has withdrawn the page making the offer... but perhaps not the offer itself.

Zooko wrote in with this story where you can read about how universities are deciding to use Beowulf clusters instead of supercomputers. The Beowulf standard parts in parallel to provide faster, cheaper computing without all the crazy engineering that goes into a high end supercomputer.